


A Taste II

by Roturier



Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: Bad Ideas, Bad consequences, M/M, More about demons than you wanted to know, v. v. tame but still Sebaciel... ish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-26
Updated: 2016-11-26
Packaged: 2018-09-02 07:16:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8657110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Roturier/pseuds/Roturier
Summary: Ciel clears up a nagging question about his 'ending.' The hard way.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by ['A Little Taste'](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/244054) by BlackKitty95. 



A/N  Dedicated to‘BlackKitty95’ whose excellent story “ A Little Taste“ spawned this one (hence the title). And when I shared my idea in a review she eagerly replied. ‘DO IT. And let me know if you do so that I can read it ^^.’ So here it is my dear, just for you.

 

“My young master is disturbed,” the butler spoke as he toweled off his young contractor in the steamy bathing room off the young lord’s bedroom. “Would he care to share what is troubling him?”

Sullenly, the young Phantomhive heir paused, then shrugged out of his butler’s attentive hands and marched nude to his bed to sit waiting for the butler to bring him his night shirt.

“You were troubled by this case,” Sebastian persisted as he knelt at the boy’s feet. “Perhaps you felt in some way… guilty?” The case had unexpectedly devolved into a fight between two demons. The young woman on whose behalf they’d been called unexpectedly turned out to have sold her soul to the demon in question.

Sebastian had had to try and wrest the young woman from the arms of a fellow fiend who did not appreciate the interference. The woman had not either, until her demon changed his aspect to something less human and more nightmarish and full of sharp teeth. He'd morphed and clamped his suddenly unnaturally wide mouth over the woman’s face and then bit down, securing his prey.

Sebastian understood, even sympathized to the extent he was able. If he pressured the other demon any further, he was going to snatch the soul he was owed and disappear into the uncharted nether regions where non-contracted demons congregated. It would be both fruitless and pointless to pursue the creature there. They would’ve failed in their endeavor at that point. The girl would be dead.

Unfortunately, having been put under command, Sebastian was compelled to press the issue and the inevitable happened: the young lady lost life and soul in a terrifying, bloody embrace, and in the next moment, the demon was gone.

To say the young woman’s parents were not pleased would be a severe understatement.

“At first I thought it must have been the failure which was troubling you,” Sebastian continued. “You seldom face failure with me by your side,” the demon murmured as be bent near to fold the little earl’s collar down.

Sebastian made no pointless moves, Ciel knew. Yet he could not stop himself from shrinking back from the demon who was speaking softly by his ear. He thereby inadvertently revealed his newfound fear of his dark knight. Ciel knew Sebastian would not fail to notice, even though it was no more than a tiny flinch from the demon's proximity, from the feel of his breath playing over the boy’s hair and neck.

“So that is it? You are afraid now that you’ve seen a soul torn from a human body by a demon?”

“Shut up. Quit saying such stupid thi-“

“Please do not lie to yourself, my lord. It makes everything so much more difficult.”

“I’m not-“ the boy spat, struggling to escape the demon’s arms. “Get off me you dog, who do you think you are, to come crawling onto my bed like thi-“

“I will release you _when_ we have spoken about this matter,” the butler insisted, one knee planted on the bed, his arms pinning, forcing the boy to face him. “I know you better than you realise, Ciel Phantomhive, and I want you to understand I have never admired you because you lacked fear. All sane men fear, and with good reason. It is simply the human condition.”

The demon paused, searching the large blue eye glaring up at him. Feeling a little insecure given the present circumstances, the demon suddenly had a strong desire to see his own seal upon this boy whom he desired so much. He freed up one hand and reached up to untie the boy’s silken eye patch. It fell away, resting upon a pillow to reveal the branded eye, pulsing with a hot violet light in response to the demon’s nearness.

“Please allow me to explain something, young master. Many humans mistake fearlessness for bravery, and I believe you have as well. It is not the same thing. The brave are not those men who fling themselves into the fray knowing no fear. Such impulsive fools are simply mentally defective, and that is certainly nothing to admire. The _brave_ man is the one who feels the same fears all men feel, feels them, _faces_ them, and _conquers them_.

"You Ciel Phantomhive, are a brave young man. You have been from the moment we first met. Your splendid soul pulsed its excellence beyond that filthy cage you were kept in and seduced me on the spot. There was no way I could abandon such a splendid creature to such a filthy fate.”

“Only because you wanted the privilege of destroying me yourself!” the boy retorted hotly. “Don’t try to romanticize what you do, demon. You aren’t _enamoured,_ you stupid beast, you’re just _hungry_!” The vitriol in the young earl’s words was breathtaking.

“Bocchan, you misunderstand me entirely,” the butler said, pressing the boy’s head to his chest, “I _am_ enamoured of you, of your soul, for after all your soul _is_ you.

“And is that how you will express your affection, then? Are you also going to bite my face off and suck out my insides like a Christmas orange?!”

Sebastian was silent for a moment. Silence was one of his ways of avoiding awkward questions, but he knew it was not going to suffice this time. He dropped his arms and let the boy settle back onto his pillows. He looked away with a sigh because he did not wish to broach this subject. Yet from the moment he’d realised his opponent was another contracted demon, he had foreseen it was inevitable he would be having this conversation with his brave, intelligent young contractor. I

And he knew the boy was not going to like the answers his questions would garner him.

The boy turned away from his demon as well with a disgusted snort.“You refuse to answer me; I’m not the least bit surprised.”

“I am not refusing to answer, Bocchan, I am-“

“Stop calling me that! That was Tanaka’s nickname for me when I was little because he _cared_ for me. You have _not_ earned the right to use it!”

“You really believe I have no affection for my master? That I’ve written you off as nothing but fodder? How little you understand. How willfully you refuse to hear what I have been telling you from the beginning.” It was the butler’s turn to make a disgusted noise, about to give it all up as a bad job. What point trying to explain one’s views if the other willfully refuses to hear it?

“Answer the question then!” The boy sat up panting, his face reddening. He knew he was revealing his fear, his weaknesses-things he had long ago decided he must never show before the demon. However he could not help asking: _I simply **have** to know_ , he thought.

“There are many ways to take a soul, Boc— young master. What you witnessed reveals why a materialsed demon needs such teeth as we sometimes show.”

“To secure prey, yes, I can see that,” he said through gritted teeth.

“What you saw tonight resulted entirely from your command." At this the boy whipped his head back, glaring. "I am not affixing blame, merely clarifying! Please do not be so quick to take offense, young master, but the way we were pressuring that demon—“

“The _other_ demon.”

“Yes, the _other_ demon. The way we tried to wrest from him what he believed he had a right to, led directly to his actions.

In a similar situation, with a contractor I valued less than I value you, I might have done the same thing.

Demons are not possessive over material things. The material plane has little hold on them. They are, however, wildly possessive of their contractors and contracted souls as you well know. This is why I said it is very likely this case would not have concluded in just that way if we had not threatened to steal her from him as we did.”

“If that’s what a demon’s ‘affection’ looks like, I can bloody well do without it, thank you.”

“A demon’s possessiveness over a contractor and his appreciation of him are two completely different things.  The Trancy butler was a perfect example. Claude had no appreciation whatever for the young man he'd contracted with. But if you had threatened him as we did this lesser demon tonight, he would have done the same or worse.

"I sensed no animosity between the demon we faced tonight and his young mistress. They seemed to me to be quite sympathetic to one another. Left alone, I do not think he would have taken her so violently. But because he was weaker and felt overwhelmed with fear facing a devil so much more powerful than himself-" and here Ciel snorted and laughed, as much as to say his demon was putting on airs. As a result the butler completely shut down.

Finally he said, “I will say it one last time. Then I am finished trying to explain to you. There are many ways to take a-“

“Tell me then. Or show me.”

“Tell you… what, specifically?”

“Tell me how _you_ take a soul, how you will take mine. Show me.”

A palpable shift occurred in the atmosphere. Already tense, it grew oppressive, almost palpable.

“Yes, my lord.”

Neither moved for the space of a breath. Two breaths.

“Well?”

The demon’s voice turned soft. “Would you… prefer that I show you?” The fire in the demon’s eyes leaped at the words, and the boy felt it in his marked eye. It grew hot and began to throb.

“Should I permit you?” the boy seemed to be vibrating with fury, but the demon sensed his anger was rapidly draining away and being replaced by intense curiosity… and a thin thread of lust. “Are you going to lose control of yourself like that another demon, snatch your prize and bugger off? What’s to say you won't do the same thing?”

“Language, my lord. There’s no need for that kind of—"

“Shut up and answer the question.”

“Could you really not perceive the difference between your own demon and that lowly creature to whom the young woman was bound? Do you honestly believe _every_ demon is as powerful as _I am_?”

“Answer. The question. Sebastian.”

The demon dared to touch his infuriated little contractor, reaching out for one blushing cheek. He gently stroked it, appearing sad, somehow. Or perhaps disappointed was nearer the mark. _Well, no matter,_ the demon thought. A lifetime of experiencing similar disappointments when dealing with humans had taught him to quickly let such disagreeable sentiments go.

Instead he focused on delighting in the fine texture of the boy's flesh beneath his palm. It was soft and warm, and sprinkled with invisible downy hairs. _Rather like a ripe peach._ When he found his voice again, his tone was reverent: “I would not defile this for any price, my Lord. Nor would I leave you.”

“Without reason. You have left me before.”

“Never truly, young master. I was never far away. How could I leave my only worldly treasure?”

“Remarkably, demon, that doesn’t make me feel the least bit better. And you still haven’t—“

The demon leaned forward and quickly answered the best way he knew how, placing his own lips gently onto the boy’s and slowly teasing his jaws apart with gentle, almost playful pressure.

At first the boy was too shocked to respond and sat rigid and staring in the demon’s grip. When his brain finally kicked back into gear he remembered having asked Sebastian for a demonstration. Is that what this was? Or was it another delaying tactic?

When the lips retreated a bit, the boy barked “was that supposed to prove something or were you just trying to scramble my brains so I couldn’t remember what we were talking about?”

The demon chuckled softly. “No delay tactics intended. I am answering your question. If you would prefer I could also take your soul through your blood, as I believe I have told you before,” he said, trailing a warm finger down from the boy’s blushing cheek to his throat. “I have tasted it and know it would be very pleasant… for me. It would be more painful for you at least at first.” More smiles and a certain sparkle in the catlike eyes told Ciel the demon was enjoying himself.

“But as you saw tonight, there are also more violent methods. Those are usually reserved for the unpleasant or _difficult_ contractors,” Sebastian smiled knowingly and put his hand over the boy’s heart which he could hear pounding wildly. “Angry demons are apt to strew entrails about and crack ribs, choosing the messiest, most painful route possible to the soul. But I have a brave and fair-minded contractor who believes in paying his debts. I anticipate no such need for gruesome violence.” The demon paused to run his fingers through the boy’s hair, settling it from Ciel’s moment of defiance when he’d first pinned the boy onto the bed.

“Also, unlike many of my kind, I usually find I enjoy my time with my contractors. Perhaps because I am much more discriminating in their initial selection. I much prefer a gentler, more mutually enjoyable method.” And with that he dipped his head again.

The boy was just as surprised as the first time and a bit alarmed as well. Was Sebastian annoyed at him for pressuring him into answering? Ciel was not so foolish as to fail to realise his butler, like the cats he so admired, was not about to let himself be pressured into anything he didn’t really want to do. If Sebastian answered, it would be because he wanted to. Because like a cat, he always had his own goals in mind. Trying to divert him was like trying to turn back the ocean or the clouds in the sky. The demon was a force of nature. Ciel could no more _truly_ control him than he could fly.

So when those warm, moist lips connected with his a second time, Ciel knew it was because the demon wanted it, and there was a modicum of comfort in that, so the boy relaxed and gave in to the insistent attention, closing his eyes.

The moment the tension went out of his body, however, something else began to happen, causing his whole being to tighten again in terror. Caught with his head back and his mouth slack he suddenly felt a strong pulling sensation deep inside. And when he tried to move his head or close his mouth he found his entire oral cavity seemed filled to bursting with Sebastian’s tongue, which now felt more like a live eel trying to slither down his throat.

Gagging, panicking, paddling blindly, Ciel desperately fought against the bulk of his butler, whose body now seemed to be everywhere at once and yet indistinct and amorphous in the darkened room, moving through the air around the bed and over his body like a swirl of ink unfurling in a glass of clear water. The boy struggled, eyes starting from their sockets, mouth wet and seemingly stretched to the limit, clawing wildly, gagging at the terrible feeling of a throat totally blocked by _something_ he couldn’t breathe around _,_ a something that was wet and _writhing._

A terrible sense of doom settled on young Phantomhive, his mind serving up the memory of standing before a certain red deer he’d hunted with his aunt last fall. He’d stood and watched its eyes for the moment death took it. He knew he must be wearing that exact same hideously blank expression, knowing he could not escape this lethal embrace, knowing what a fool he’d been. So far from saving himself, he’d actually _asked_ for this, knowing _this_ _time_ his ever-faithful dark paladin would _not_ be hurrying to his rescue.

No, not this time.

Ciel felt his consciousness slithering away and a last sensation seared itself on his awareness: the feeling of the demon Sebastian truly was purring heavily against him like a giant cat and lazily licking at what must surely be his soul.

 

***

 

When Ciel began to feel his awareness returning to him, the first thing that caught his attention was the sound of his butler’s voice, speaking in his unmistakable, pedantic, ‘tutor mode’:

“… like that, my lord. Ah! There you go; I see your eyelids shivering. Are you with us once again, young master?”

Vaguely he heard Finny somewhere nearby, loudly blubbering like a fool, and Mey Rin fussing about the room, talking to herself. Someone laid a cool cloth on his forehead and ne heard a wash basin being set down on the floor near the bed. Then he heard the dull clink of a glass being carefully set down on his bedside table.

Someone slipped an arm behind his shoulders and lifted his upper body from the bed, stuffing pillows behind his back, then helping him to sit up. He found the room seemed to spin when he tried opening his eyes. He listlessly watched the butler shooing the other servants out of the room and reminding them to be quiet until their lord had fully recovered, then he closed his eyes again, still lacking the will to stay awake and present.

A short absence of consciousness ended when he felt the bed dip a little and a large hand comb its way through his hair in a fond gesture.

“Come back my fragile little lord. We are alone now, and I would like to speak with you.” There was a pause, then a deep sigh and then he heard “My, my… it is always such a profound shock to me…”

Ciel opened his eyes and looked about for his demon. “What is,” he whispered dully.

“The disparity between that fierce and fiery soul of yours and your... forgive me my lord, but your rather pathetic physical form.” The boy heard the light, playful mocking in the butler’s tone and opened his eyes. He frowned to see the butler fiddling with his hand like it was a limb belonging to a jointed doll, opening and closing the fingers, rolling them up in a fist, turning the hand over and tracing the veins. Unusually, his face was wearing a bright, rather disturbing grin.

“Let go, beast,” he wheezed, doing his best to roughly snatch his hand away. He discovered he was ridiculously weak and also his throat was extremely sore.

 _Now there’s an unpleasant thought to dally over as I fall asleep tonight,_ Ciel thought. _Apparently, all of that nightmarish tongue nonsense actually happened._ He gulped hard and made a face at the burning pain _. And here I thought it was just that repulsive Trancy butler who was like that_... _ugh._  A violent shiver coursed through the boy at the disgusting memory _._

"I prepared this for you while you were unconscious, knowing you would probably appreciate it once you woke,” the butler said, offering him a tall glass of something tea coloured.

“What is it?”

“It is tea, cooled to room temperature with a generous dose of honey added to help soothe your throat. Sip at it slowly.”

“And what the hell did you do to my throat for me to need something like this?” he ground out, but then drank gratefully. It wasn’t to his taste, but it did feel soothing going down.

“You asked for a demonstration, did you not?”

The boy stroked his throat with a sulky face.  “I could feel you rummaging around in there, you know.”

“Only a little. I would not dream of doing anything to damage my young lord or my future repast. I was being gentle and extremely careful.”

“Didn’t feel like it. Felt like you chased a whole pack of imps with sharp little hooves down my throat, and that every one of them was carrying a torch.”

The demon laughed out loud at that, startling the boy profoundly. He was not sure he’d ever heard Sebastian really laugh like that before.

“Ah my precious little earl, I _am_ truly sorry, but that was a stupidly foolish request you made of me. Any other demon and that would’ve been the end of you." The butler perched lightly on the edge of the boy's bed and leaned forward to confide, "however, I've yet to get my fill of our little game of butler to an earl and chasing my young master's revenge, so...” and with that he stood again.

Ciel attempted to yell some more abuse at the demon but he only managed to get out the word ‘infuriating’ and he suddenly found himself coughing uncontrollably. Finally, after a minute of coughing so violently he actually tore something in his throat and bled a little, he managed a few rasping words for his faithful servant.

“Get out.”

Whereon Sebastian obediently did just that, chuckling and promising to be but a call away should the boy need him in the night.

Eventually, some minutes later Ciel managed to get the coughing under control by soothing his throat with the thick, sweet tea and got most of his voice back. When he did, he had just one thing to say.

“Bastard.”

And somewhere, deep in the bowels of the Phantomhive mansion, Ciel was certain he heard another loud and merry laugh.


End file.
